Work in Progress

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, despite my intention to post at least once a week.  To make up for that here are a few of the things I've been working on.  The woman with chainsaw is from Reaper Minis.  I've been really impressed with the quality of their stuff.  Clean castings with plenty of character.  This one is finished and will end up on a shelf.

Next up is the almost finished Ultramarine Command Squad.  Fletcher wanted a cool looking squad with a close combat set up.  I picked up a Dark Angel veteran kit and had a few other bits so this is how they ended up.  I'm happy with how they can out and Fletcher loves them.  Just need some detail on the bases and a coat of sealer and they are finished.  And OK they probably should have the Ultramarine logo on the shoulder, but I suck at painting it and don't have any of the stuff needed to do a good job with transfers.  They look better without it.

And lastly, something I just started.  I picked up a few Tau on ebay, thanks to having a balance on my pay pal for a while (and still got some money there, rubs hands together).  A couple of crisis suits and a broadside.  So first, wow, GW metal casting really frickin' sucks.  I mentioned how much I like Reaper's casting.  Well GW was the opposite.  Flash everywhere is annoying, but the thing aren't even shaped right.  They are all buckled and curved.  Pretty pathetic really, and particularly as their plastic stuff is second to none.  Anyway, I wanted to have a bit of fun with the Broadside so here we go.

New daemon prince - WIP 1

Loved the model so I figured I had to get one as a show piece.  At this stage I have zero interest in a Chaos Daemon army so all this is for is a cool looking mini.  Anyway, so far he is assembled and I've got a Runic Mountain base for him.  I've also pinned the feet and drilled holes in the base.  I didn't glue it down yet to make it easier to paint.

IG Veterans WIP 3

Just a quick update.  Next few days are going to be busy so this is about as far as they are going to get until probably next weekend.  Flat coats are all done, and a bit of the detail work.  Next its time for highlights, washes and dry brush where they finally start to look good.  The completed guy in the photo is one of my normal guardsmen as an example of how I've changed the color scheme.  Basically vets are black/gray instead of green.  yeah I know, revolutionary isn't it.

IG Veterans WIP 2

The veterans squad is all assembled now.  Didn't go too smoothly, converting the arms to hold the shotguns and melta guns was a bit fiddly and annoying.  They look pretty good as a squad though.  Three melta guns, 7 shotguns, and a powerfist.  Should do some damage.

Its nice to see them all with the backpacks on.  That, the catachan heads and the alternate weapons give the squad a nice distinctive look.  Next I need to finish cleaning up flash lines and such and then get them primed.

IG backpacks WIP

I've been wanting to add a veteran squad to my IG army, but wanted to custom build it.  I picked up some Catachan heads, a pack of meltas, had a bunch of left over SM scout shotguns, and got a pack of Secret Weapon backpacks.  I started putting some if this together tonight just to see how easy it would be.  The Catachan heads don't fit on Cadian bodies very well.  The meltas are a pain in the ass to get positioned.  The shotguns are easier but still some work.  The backpacks though, they went on perfect.  Slipped in nice and snug and tight with everything lining up perfectly (that's what she said).  Really, couldn't ask for more on these.  Well aside from if they'd come out 6 months ago I think all my guard would have them, they look great.

Lastly a quick WIP of another command squad.  Still need to clean them up a little before I prime them.  These are going to get mixed in with the existing stuff so I'll have an all plasma CCS (they also get the medic), an all flamer PCS (with the plasma pistol/power sword officer) and the melta dude goes to an infantry squad.

Sternguard WIP 2

Yeah OK, probably should have shown more stages of the work.  These were my standard work flow and I'm happy with them now they are done.  The conversions (all have at least a mild conversion) were the most fun part.  After that they were primed gray, then flat coated Mordian Blue, white and black.  The blue was then layered with ultramarine blue, and I started adding the details.  Mithril silver drybrush on weapons, still my favorite way, and picking out all the other bits like the seals, skulls and such.  Once detail was complete they all got a Payne's Gray wash, and then a deneb stone drybrush (I like my armor dirty looking).

All that is missing is some grass tufts on the base, and chapter markings.  Good enough for now though.

Sternguard WIP

Haven't done any work in progress stuff so I thought I'd start one.  I picked up a space marine combat squad for dirt cheap on ebay (less than half the GW price).  The ultramarine army I've been building and painting for Fletch has 2 sternguard squads, but both are 5 man.  I'd like them to be 10-man squads.  Plus, I really like the model making.  Anyway, this combat squad, plus a few bits were going to become 5 bolter armed sternguard.  I really don't like the standard GW pose for SM, so one thing I was going to be working on was avoiding that.
 

So here they are assembled.  First from the left I cut the wrists and shoulders to allow me to bring the gun up into a more aimed pose.  The gun I modded to become a combi-flamer with a box magazine.  Second guy has the normal GW pose, but again the gun was modded to be a combi-flamer with a box magazine.  Middle guy has a firing pose, gun is modded to be a combi-plasma with a belt magazine.  Looks really cool, I'll do that again.  The last two I cut up some other marine arms to avoid the across the chest pose.  First has grenades in his other hand, second has a bolt gun and bolt pistol.  I'm really happy with how these came out.  They are now all gray primered.  I'll get another few shots as they go through the painting process.